Opinions and rants about human nature, behavioral and social trends, mores, ethics, values, and the effect of these human qualities on our future.

Sunday, January 01, 2012

“Ask not…” John Kennedy omitted the best option

President Kennedy’s famous “ask not” quote is canonized by the media as one of the most stirring statements since Roosevelt’s “…a date which will live in infamy” proclamation given after the attack on Pearl Harbor.

Here it is, as the liberal media would like it to appear following the Book of Revelation in the New Testament:

And so, my fellow Americans: ask not what your country can do for you - ask what you can do for your country.

What we have here are two socialist choices:

1. Asking what our country can do for us: Demanding government services and entitlements, or

2. Asking our fellow citizens to do more for country/government: pay more taxes; support more programs, urge bigger government.

Both of these options beg for more and bigger government. Both of these options ignore asking the people to do things for themselves. The spirit of self-determination, self-sufficiency and independence are what made our country great prior to its decline of the last 50 years propelled by socialist tendencies.

The third, ignored but better, option is this:

Ask not what not what your country can do for you; ask not what you can do for your country; but ask what you can do for yourself and for your neighbors.

This best represents and promotes the enlightened self-interest that enabled the success of our nation and our liberties.

Leave “country” (synonymous with “government”) out of it. Those are both socialist options. The freedom option is the one that emphasizes individual responsibility for our own needs, not the “needs” of the country that, in the end, just lead to bigger government and smaller freedoms.

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About Me

Moral relativism and political correctness abrogate our human responsibilities. Our current President and his administration is a consequence of America's lazy and uninformed electorate. Most have forgotten, ignored or rebelled against the Judeo-Christian foundation of our constitutional republic and our faith. It seems much of America is pre-occupied not with the things that improve and build, but things that pervert and destroy. Failure to speak the truth for fear of offending will kill us.